This was in today's WSJ:
Top executives of companies that provide half of Europe's electricity production capacity on Friday called on politicians to end "distorting" subsidies for wind and solar power, saying the incentives have led to whopping bills for households and businesses and could cause continent-wide blackouts.
"We've failed on all accounts: Europe is threatened by a blackout like in New York few years ago, prices are shooting up higher, and our carbon emissions keep increasing," said GDF Suez CEO Gérard Mestrallet.
Under the subsidy mechanisms, wind and solar power producers benefit from priority access to the grid and enjoy guaranteed prices.
In France, for instance, even as wholesale prices hover around €40 ($54) a megawatt hour, windmill electricity goes at a minimum of €83 a megawatt hour, regardless of demand. The difference is charged to customers.
The system certainly lured investors into wind and solar power projects. Germany now has 60 gigawatts of wind and solar capacity—about 25% of the country's total power-generation capacity. But the guarantees mean households now pay about 29 euro cents a kilowatt-hour, up from about 14 cents a kilowatt-hour in 2000.So, for newbies: in the US, one could pay as little as 6 cents/kilowatt-hour if free market allowed to work, but even so, in the lower 48, consumers generally pay about 10 cents/kilowatt-hour. Compare that to the Germans who are now paying about 40 cents/kilowatt-hour.
If one is having trouble comparing 10 cents/kilowatt-hour here in the US with 40 cents/kilowatt-hour in Germany, multiply your last utility bill by four (4). If your electric bill in September was $150, it would have been $600 in Germany.
But worse: renewable energy may not be able to respond to cold snap in Europe this winter.
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